Understanding The Blogging Practices Of Women Undergoing In Vitro Fertilization For Treatment Of Infertility

Abstract

<p>The experience of infertility and its associated treatments, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), can have a profound impact on the emotional health and well-being of women desiring to become mothers. While researchers have measured the impact of infertility or described the experience and processes related to infertility and its treatment, what remained to be explored was a virtually pre-packaged collection of rich descriptions of the IVF experience as captured in women’s blogs. This discourse analysis sought to describe the blogging practices of women undergoing IVF for treatment of infertility, exploring both the content and function of the IVF blog discourse. Data were collected from the text of seven women’s blogs and resulted in four main functions of the discourse: creation of and connection to a community, emotional support, blogging as therapy, and creation of an IVF resource. Findings suggest that blogging can have a positive impact on the psychosocial consequences experienced by women in fertility treatment. Findings of this study also have methodological implications for researchers considering blogs as a data source in qualitative research.</p>